Vegetation productivity and biodiversity are a few of the parameters which could be monitored to asses the health of the ecosystem.
I would also look for a shift in species composition, not only for single number parameters. If data are available from recent decades one could compare these to actual data. But this has to be done over many years since the interannual variability of abundances can be strong for many species, and high numbers in a recent survey have to be confirmed over more than only one year.
Under the condition of severe undersampling, pseudoturnover might be masking true changes.
For German sand dune islands which are well investigated since more than one century, one can easily see which species invaded these islands. If you know the environmental preferences of these species, this provides a lot of interesting information on the mechanisms of climate change.
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